Sleeping Arrangements
by iflip4dolphins
Summary: He is the solution to her insomnia. She is the answer to his nightmares. Edge/Rydia


_Disclaimer: Oooh, looky! More stuff I don't own!_

_A/N: Edge/Rydia cuddles ahead. You have been warned. _

* * *

It began with insomnia.

Sleeping had grown difficult for Rydia. Watches aside, it was getting harder and harder to sleep through the night, even sleep through an hour or two without waking up in panicky flashes for no reason whatsoever. Even harder was actually getting to sleep. It had reached a point where she tossed and turned for several hours before she could even relax enough to consider sleeping.

Edge had noticed. The third night she'd gotten up during his midnight watch had been the final warning. After some careful negotiations – hands to yourself, mostly – and some long conversations spanning several nights worth, they had finally come to an agreement.

The first night had been iffy, and Rydia had been stiff underneath the covers for hours, untrusting and nervous. After she'd finally relaxed enough to go to sleep, however… Well, morning had come as a complete shock. For once, she hadn't been awake for pre-predawn, hadn't woken up every quarter of an hour.

So the arrangement continued. For almost three weeks now, Rydia had bedded down next to Edge, slipping in next to him fully when everyone else slept. Miraculously, they had managed to avoid any rumors with the rest of the group so far. The last thing Rydia wanted was for them to read more into the sleeping arrangement than there actually was. He was comforting to sleep next to, something to keep the insomnia away. That was all there was to it.

There were drawbacks to sleeping with another person though, particularly a male. Biology was first and foremost, and though Rydia knew it intellectually, emotion had taken over the first morning it happened. Edge had sported a red cheek for half an hour. She still hadn't apologized for it, but the thing had happened several times since then and she'd just ignored it, so things were all right as far as that was concerned. More unsettling were the nights that Edge had watches in the middle of the night. She woke up when he left the cot, and couldn't seem to get back to sleep until his watch was over and he was back underneath the covers. It was ridiculous. Still, she was getting more sleep than she had been for weeks, so Rydia put up with it.

Besides, she was getting used to sleeping next to Edge. Even the nights where she woke up snuggled up against him weren't enough to send her away.

Of course, the insomnia hadn't gone away entirely. There were still nights like tonight, where Rydia, exhausted to the point of jumpiness, took quite a while to relax enough to be able to sleep. Today had been particularly difficult, and Edge had just managed to stumble to his assigned bed in the cabin they'd set up before passing out. Rydia, knowing that sleep would be far out of reach tonight, had volunteered for first watch. She'd been relieved by Cecil a while ago, and a quiet drowsiness was finally starting to cloud her senses, despite Edge's uneasy shifting.

Next to her, Edge stiffened. A sharp intake of air, a muffle moan in the back of his throat, and Rydia jolted back into complete awareness as the ninja's eyes sprang open and he lurched into a sitting position, hands clutching the blankets so tightly his knuckles whitened.

"Edge?"

He didn't respond. Frowning, Rydia sat up herself, and carefully laid one hand on his shoulder. He jerked away. Worried now, Rydia crawled to his front and sat on her knees. His eyes, normally so clear and sharp were unfocused, still seeing whatever horrors had invaded his dreams. "It was just a nightmare," she tried.

At this, his eyes snapped to hers, fear wildly battling disbelief and dawning comprehension. "Rydia," he breathed.

That was the only warning she got before he threw his arms around her and pulled her against his chest, arms trembling, fingers digging into her back through her robe. He buried his face in her shoulder. A strange warmth blossomed in her chest, but Rydia resolutely ignored it in favor of the confusion and worry, and hesitantly returned the hug. "It's okay," she murmured. Remembering what her mother had done when she had nightmares, she cautiously rubbed one hand on his back in as soothing a manner as she could. "It was just a nightmare."

Edge just shook his head and tightened his grip. Rydia winced. "That was my back."

His muffled apology came with a loosening of his fingers. After what seemed like years, Edge finally drew back, letting out a shaky breath as he pressed the heels of his palms to his face. "Sorry about that."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Rydia asked.

His hands fell. "No."

"Do you need to talk about it?"

Another long, shaky exhalation. "Rydia…"

"Fine then. I'm going to sleep."

His hand closed around her upper arm gently. "Wait."

With a sigh, Rydia stopped trying to crawl under the covers. Edge's hand slid from her arm to her wrist, then dropped away entirely. After a long moment, during which Rydia couldn't quite bring herself to slide under the covers and go to sleep anyway, he finally said, "You died."

"I – what?"

"Most of us died," he elaborated quietly, very purposefully not looking at her even as she stared at him. "But you – you were right there, and I couldn't get to you in time." He swallowed, hard, adam's apple bobbing painfully. "And I –"

He cut himself off, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter. As you said, it was only a nightmare."

Without her consent, Rydia's hand caught his cheek and turned his head so that he faced her fully. "I know you wouldn't let me die." Never mind the fact that she didn't need his help to stay alive anyway. Nighttime had an odd way of pulling the truth from people, and Rydia knew in a place deeper than her heart, deeper than her magic, that Edge would fight until his very last breath to keep her alive.

Before she could decide that it was a bad idea, Rydia leaned forward and pressed her lips to his cheek before diving underneath the covers and pulling them up to her chin. After a moment, Edge lay back down, his hands reaching for her waist and pulling her flush against him. "Just for tonight?" he asked in her ear.

Rydia just closed her eyes, relaxing back into Edge's warmth.


End file.
